I just re-watched this, and (ignoring the obvious minigame conceit) I don't think the camera hacking missions make any sense. How does the HKPD not already have access to these public surveillance cameras? I get if they were private cameras for a store or something, but surely the one overlooking the public basketball court is under city ordinance, right?

Although, I haven't played the game, so maybe I'm just missing some Watchdogs-esque plot-twist involving triad-hacker-something-something...

Coming back to rewatch this after playing a ton of the game, myself, and of course I had to check if there's any new comments... So, interestingly enough, I have a perfect example of the "doing horrible things in video games" philosophizing that was going on before.

I'm a completionist when it comes to open world games, because being able to go anywhere and do anything is both empowering and very relaxing to me, so I've spent many more hours in the world of Sleeping Dogs than I suspect most people will when they get to this point. I was doing a mission to collect money from people. I met this one guy who needed harassment, so I did what was required and got his money. Then I took a tire iron, whacked him, then pulled out a gun and shot him in the face, laughing as I walked away from the scene. Clearly I am an awful person.

What actually happened is that, having spent as much time as I had with the game, the story and world had become much less immersive to me over time and I started seeing the game more as a pile of discreet mechanics to play around with. A sandbox. So upon completing the mission, I realized the NPC was now completely useless to the mechanics of the game. Even though, obviously, a person has to be alive if you want to continue collecting money from them, our interaction in the actual game was over, so whatever happened next would have no consequences. The tire iron, I had accidentally picked up when trying to harass him earlier, just by virtue of being too close to the tire iron and too far away from him. One of those "things you accidentally do in games that would never happen in real life" moments. I noticed his AI seemed to have shut off after the mission ended, because instead of walking away or reacting at all, he was just standing there. I hit him with the tire iron just to see if he would react or if he, indeed, was 100% scripted and wasn't programmed to respond like other pedestrians do. He didn't move at all. At that point, what my avatar had in front of him was, indeed, a completely soulless, functionless puppet. It played out its role in the game, and had no purpose once done. Not even as window dressing, like the other citizens of Hong Kong. He was just standing there.

I still haven't used guns much in the game, since they're very, very rare early on, and I happened to have a pistol in my pocket from an earlier mission, so I decided to see what would happen if I used it on a civilian. Plus, the idea that one would shoot someone in the face after carefully harassing them to pay up is so nonsensical that it's amusing to me. It's one of those problems where the freedom of an open world game can let you do things that make no sense at all to the intended story, but I love coming across those and exploiting them for fun. This particular case was made even better by an event later in the same storyline. If you've played it, you know what I'm talking about. Imagine the reaction to that, after I'd done what I just described. It's so inconsistent that I feel I've almost created a parody of the storyline I was supposed to be playing a part in. And that's one of the best things about games; The freedom to rewrite things in ways you're not supposed to because they make no sense. Just like when Vinny smashes a helpless nurse's head against a glass door until she passes out.

I love that Saints Row and True Crime (sleeping dogs) have surpassed GTA in many peoples opinion. Both games 'GET' what made the original GTA games so damn brilliant, they were fun, over the top and didn't take themselves to seriously.

An interesting thing I've observed regarding video games is that, at least for some people, it's a lot easier to do than it is to watch . I find myself cringing at some things in games, as well, but find those reflexes completely gone when I'm behind the wheel and doing the exact same thing. My guess is that it has something to do with how you know full and well you're merely playing a game when you're playing a game, but when you're watching it happen, you start taking into account all this reason and symbolism, like when you read a book or watch a movie, that isn't actually supposed to be there. In reality, it's just someone messing around with clearly lifeless and purposeless puppets, with no more malice behind it than a child randomly deciding to throw a doll into the wall when they're bored of playing with it. What looks like a simulation of unwarranted and savage abuse is just a bored and curious mind testing the bounds of the toy put before them. How far does a rubber leg bend before it snaps out of its joint? Oh, that far. Oh well.

I found it hilarious just because of how random it was. Don't see why it's such a fuss.

An interesting thing I've observed regarding video games is that, at least for some people, it's a lot easier to do than it is to watch . I find myself cringing at some things in games, as well, but find those reflexes completely gone when I'm behind the wheel and doing the exact same thing. My guess is that it has something to do with how you know full and well you're merely playing a game when you're playing a game, but when you're watching it happen, you start taking into account all this reason and symbolism, like when you read a book or watch a movie, that isn't actually supposed to be there. In reality, it's just someone messing around with clearly lifeless and purposeless puppets, with no more malice behind it than a child randomly deciding to throw a doll into the wall when they're bored of playing with it. What looks like a simulation of unwarranted and savage abuse is just a bored and curious mind testing the bounds of the toy put before them. How far does a rubber leg bend before it snaps out of its joint? Oh, that far. Oh well.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Vinny should head every QL and Endurance Run. Not just because he's the most entertaining; with a quick wit and sense of humor beyondEmmy-award-winning level, but he SHOWS YOU THE GAME better than anyone else can on GB. Just as long as Drew is manning the controls/TrackIR for the flight sims.

Not to say others don't do it well (Jeff is great all around, as is Brad as long as he isn't the one playing), but dammit, Vinny is GB as far as I'm concerned; the total package. Of course, all of this is completely opinion-based, except for the fact that Vinny is the best.

AI is bad, gameplay is bad, combat is bad, driving is bad. You could hit a car full speed, and little to no damage to the car you hit. The explosions are reminscent of GTA III last gen with the little black parts flying away. Physics don't exist in this game, you hit a person, they get hit and lie flat on the ground the exact same way.

In compotent games the cops are supposed to try and pull you over. In this game? if they get infront of you, they will stay there unless you stop the car. They don't try to do anything to your car, apparently they just love driving next to you. Its annoying trying to get them off of you specificaly because they seem to be set to drive continuously at the same speed.

The driving is too arcadey and is a bit too much like older sandbox games before GTA IV release. Fighting isn't really necessary considering you can easily just run everyone into an obstacle instantly killing them.

I love Vinny but hes so silly sometimes. You spent the first half the the quick look beating the shit out of random pedestrians and ramming their heads into car doors but you don't like it when the game allows you to run people down? Personally, I can't fucking stand it when games make the pedestrians auto dodge your car. It never looks right and its just overall a janky mess.

I love this game. The Cantonese is clearly accented on some characters like Winston and Jackie (because their actors are overseas-born Chinese) and that annoys me a little, but I appreciate the gesture. Though it is a little weird when a guy interjects random Chinese into a sentence and then says the exact same thing right afterward in English. Also odd that all the random street NPCs speak clearly native Cantonese while many named characters do not. (Mrs. Chu is best)